Thursday, September 20, 2007

Todd Ragsdale's 100 Miler

Photo taken by Andy Atkinson

On Tuesday, September 18th local runner Todd Ragsdale ran 100-miles around Ashland, Oregon's Lithia Park. Why? Just to see if he could. He ran a 3.5 mile loop 29 times. He started at 2am and 16 hours and 36 minutes later he was done. A fantastic time for a 100 mile run! He was accompanied throughout the day by many local runners, bikers and drivers. He spent little of the day without friends. Even the local news showed up. See Todd's interview on You Tube.

2 comments:

John said: Well, when Todd told me he was planning to try and run 100 miles on his own in Lithia Park with no official course or race, I thought this man is truly crazy. In fact, me and Joe both tried to talk him out of it, but Todd wouldn't hear it. Must have something to do with that red hair of his. Anyway, on a training run, several days before his own scheduled event, we were teasing him and trying to talk some sense into him and I said, "I bet you won't make it." I wanted to bet money, but Todd had something else in mind. He's been scheming for two years to put a relay team together called "Speedo Banditos" for Hood to Coast where all the guys wear a speedo and sombrero (sounds pretty gay, doesn't it?). Anyway, I told Todd, "When hell freezes over, you'll catch me in a speedo," and that's the response he got from pretty much everybody except Joe Griffin and recently, Eric Pool. These two blokes, for whatever reason, think it's a good idea. Which brings me back to the bet - Todd says if he finishes the 100-miler I have to be on his relay team and my nickname will be, "Mosquito." His, by the way, is going to be "Torpedo" and Joe is going to be "Burrito" and Eric is yet to be named. If you got something that rhymes with "Speedo" let me know. All kidding aside, Todd's feat was quite remarkable and it may be the most impressive thing I've ever seen him do. The fact that he ran by his car nearly 30 times and could have quit at any moment, blows my mind. Hopefully, we can get Todd entered into a real 100 mile race so he can show the ultra world what he's got.